11th October, 2010
Last Friday’s revelation that the Federal Government intends to spend about N14 billion on pilgrims to Saudi Arabia came as a rude shock to most right-thinking Nigerians. Sources at the Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON, stated that out of the estimated 95,000 pilgrims that will take part in this year’s pilgrimage, the Federal Government plans to sponsor 26,235 of them. The sources added that it will cost between N460,000 and N540,000 to sponsor each of the 26,235 pilgrims for the 2010 Hajj.
In the face of the nation’s other crippling problems, we think this is one profligacy too many. Education is in shambles, industrialists are moving out of Nigeria, kidnappers are having a field day just as the Niger Delta militants are crying foul and threatening to go back to the creeks, over 70% of the population live below poverty level, so says the United Nations, and here we are, after spending a colossal sum to celebrate our 50th independence anniversary, we want to sponsor some people on a pilgrimage.
In a secular state such as ours, we believe the issue of religion is a personal thing and as such, should be put on the back burner. The state should never use our collective wealth to sponsor just one group of people, whether Muslims or Christians on pilgrimage. If the Federal thinks otherwise, it might as well sponsor Shango worshippers to South America on a pilgrimage.
In a country where basic health facilities are lacking and life expectancy has plunged to 47, where literacy level is put at between 31-59 per cent, where cholera still ravages parts of the country and people die in their hundreds, what reasonable government would spend billions to sponsor people on a personal journey to Jerusalem or Saudi Arabia?
If half of the N14 billion is spent on sinking boreholes across Nigeria, we all know what it would mean to the recipient communities. If some of this billions is used to patch up the Benin-Ore highway, we all know what impact it would make but it does not seem that our leaders and policy makers think this way.
If it has been the tradition of successive governments to sponsor pilgrimages, it is time to stop the wasteful exercise; we’ve had enough of waste. At 50, Nigeria ought to look back and see where we have been found wanting and move to correct such costly mistakes.
We must start to think of ways of solving our problems and put a stop to profligacy. If philanthropists want to sponsor millions of people on pilgrimages, let them do so. The state should not do it for any a reason at all. Governors should go on their pilgrimages with their personal funds and stop using state funds to sponsor their families, cronies and party loyalits on wasteful trips.
Taking a critical look at Nigeria, it seems things are on a downward slide. No new factories are springing up, unemployment is still on the rise, infant mortality rate is still as bad as 10 years ago, Nigerians now make do with supplying their own electricity and water, and yet we call ourselves the giant of Africa. We believe Nigeria can rise again. All we need are visionary leaders who know what to do. It is time the National Assembly picked up the constitution and took a more critical look at areas where it encourages waste and expunged them. The National Assembly, the most expensive in the whole world, debates nothing but their allowances and salaries. The laws, for which they were elected or rigged into office to enact, are no longer a matter of debate, except where they affect them negatively. So the waste goes on.
Most of those in office today attended school through scholarships awarded by the Federal Government. Sadly today, funds which ought to be used to educate indigent students are frittered away on expensive trips by government officials on pilgrimages that mean nothing to the average Nigerian. This must stop now.